As Kavon pointed out below, today would’ve been Ronald Reagan’s 96th birthday. In honor of one of America’s greatest Presidents, John McCain explains in an incredibly moving video how Reagan helped shape and inspire the entire nation, and McCain in particular.
McCain’s close friend and ally, Trent Lott also pens a letter about President Reagan and the senior senator from Arizona.
Today, on Ronald Reagan’s birthday, I hope you will pause with John McCain and me to remember the legacy of this inspirational American leader. Ronald Reagan inspired John and me to service, and we were, and remain today, proud foot-soldiers in the Reagan Revolution.
John knows firsthand the power a visionary and optimistic leader like Ronald Reagan can wield. During his time as a prisoner of war, stories of Governor Reagan and his loving wife, Nancy, spread through the Vietnamese prison camps, giving hope to John and others that their pride in America was not misplaced. Today, as we again face difficult times at home and abroad, we must remember Ronald Reagan’s unyielding confidence that America is the greatest instrument for good in the world. While our freedom and democracy is still challenged, John McCain knows that our resolve, like Ronald Reagan’s, must remain steadfast.
The American people reminded us last November what happens when we forget the principles of leaders like Ronald Reagan. John and I came to Washington to take on that fight and protect those principles. John McCain continues it today, even if it is often a lonely one on the Senate floor.
On this great man’s birthday, please take a moment to reflect on the values we share as Americans and the hard choices that must be made to protect those beliefs. Ronald Reagan said, “Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.” Those words must continue to inspire us all as we continue to fight for freedom across the world and responsibility in Washington.
Sincerely,
Trent Lott
Ronald Reagan’s presidency came to an end on January 20th, 1989. John McCain will carry on the Reagan legacy beginning January 20th, 2009.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Mccain carry the legacy in 2009? As if.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Impressive video.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Is there any Republican that doesn’t want to be “The Heir of Reagan”?
A quick aside to LJ: Did you see where McCain’s people did a Blogger Outreach today?
February 6th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Reagan never would have supported anti-free-speech legislation, and he never would have bought all the global-warming hyperbole that McCain has.
February 6th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Talk about name-dropping. I’m just surprised that he didn’t mention Abraham Lincoln for good measure. Then the “quadumvirate” of Abe, Teddy, Presidential Candidate Barry, and Ron would be complete.
February 6th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
LJ,
That was John McCain at the best I’ve seen him. Very well done.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:02 am
marK,
I hadn’t seen that McCain’s people did a blogger outreach today. It seems to have gone generally well. I think once a lot of conservative bloggers really get to know McCain’s views that he’ll begin picking up support in the blogosphere.
murphy,
I’ve watched the video about 5 times now and I have to say that it’s just amazingly well put together. There was a lot of file footage that I hadn’t since before. It was just a really inspiring 2 and a half minutes. Admit it murphy, President McCain doesn’t sound too bad after that.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Admit it murphy, President McCain doesn’t sound too bad after that.
I may have paid team McCain a well-deserved complement, but let’s not get carried away here!
February 7th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Well, you gave an inch…heh.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:34 am
John McCain is certainly a hero of mine. As I’ve mentioned before, he brought me to the door of the Republican party, and old footage of Reagan (particularly the Time for Choosing Speech) carried me through it. I have tremendous respect for him and I’d be happy to call him president. There are certainly days when I wonder if backing Romney instead of McCain (as if my backing means anything) isn’t a mistake. But I think history is going to pass him by, and in many ways, it’s an awful shame. One of the interesting things about this field is that, while all the GOP candidates express homage to Reagan, all of the Big Three seem to be closer, in various ways, to one Teddy Roosevelt (my ultimate political hero). John McCain clearly has expressed his deep admiration for the man, but I’ve also heard Romney repeatedly mention his fondness for The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex (the latter of which is on his favorite books list on facebook). And the parallels to Giuliani are obvious to anyone with a knowledge of history (no nonsense bulldog reformer and would be mayor of New York). For whatever ideological grudges conservatives might have with Teddy, there was never a greater patriot, or a greater defender of America. The fact that, when I look at our three main GOP candidates, I see, more then anything else, Roosevelt Republicans, is probably an excellent sign.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Well, I’m no McCain fan, but that was a well done video. Nice work by the J-Mac team.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
John McCain has about as much in common with Ronald Reagan as I have with Markos Zuniga of Daily
Kos..
Michael
February 7th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Ronald Reagan. Every cheap politician claims to be like him but no one is. Do you seriously think that Ronald Reagan would be for starting a “pre-emptive” war?
February 7th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Peter,
Neo-con foreign policy gained its first real foothold on the world stage during the Reagan administration. Certainly not the extent that Bush articulates it, but Reagan is certainly the closest to Bush, on the Republican side, in terms of general foreign policy strategy. Bush 1, Nixon, and Ford were much more realist in orientation.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Reagan wasn’t a neo-con. Bush Sr. was.
February 7th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
This was a nice video but I don’t think he is the heir of Reagan. Mccain was a foot soldier and ardent supporter of Reagan but that doesn’t mean he should be Reagan’s heir. He lacks a lot of charisma and leadership qualities that really made Reagan glow. Mccain is a hero and a patriot but he’s nowhere near the presidential quality of Ronald Reagan.
February 7th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
This was a nice video and well done, but I don’t buy it. McCain voted against the 2003 tax cuts, for example. That is not Reaganesque. Also, McCain doesn’t have the same charisma, communication ability, and connection to the common man that Reagan had. I think being a Senator for too long has affected him some. Nobody that has been out with average people would have made that stupid comment about Americans not being willing to picking lettuce for $50 an hour. Reagan’s GE tour connected him strongly with ordinary Americans, on the other hand. What this does remind anti-McCain Republicans is that McCain is a heck of a lot better than ANY Democrat. So, if he wins the nomination, get your butt out to the polls and vote for him.
February 7th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Ted,
Reagan wasn’t a neo-con. Bush Sr. was.
Yes and no. Reagan wasn’t a neo-conservative, however most of the original first generation neocons (Perle, Wolfowitz, Fukuyama, etc.) because Republicans because of Reagan’s foreign policies. But, one of the things that made Reagan’s presidency so important was that he brought all the disparate conservative groups (neocons, realists, ficons, socons, libertarians, moderate Dems, etc.) under the banner of Reaganism. So the neocons viewed him as a hero of their movement.
Now, Bush 41 was anything but a neocon. He belonged to the realist foreign policy school that is diametrically opposed to the revolutionary agenda of neoconservativism. In fact, the neocons despised Bush for not going all the way to Baghdad after the first Gulf War and for abandoning the Kurds and Shiites to slaughter by Saddam.
(As an aside, a more cynical observer could point out that while Reagan brought conservatives of all stripes together, Bush 43 has blasted them apart (perhaps irrevocably) and greatly weakened conservatism as a whole. Now you have neocons fighting realists, libertarians fighting social conservatives, fiscal conservatives fighting big government conservatives. For heaven’s sake, lots of libertarians nowadays are openly discussing splitting from the Republican Party in order to form a tactical alliance with liberals. The conservative movement is on the verge of a civil war and unless the GOP nominates a leader that can bind the movement together again, we’ll likely suffer the same fate as the Democrats did in 1968 when their coalition ruptured.)
February 7th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Reagan knew how to bring people together. The Bushes didn’t.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Maybe Bush Sr. did to some extent…